in between...

Thirty six minutes until class starts, so I may as well share some thoughts with the world. Today I am finding myself wondering why we (students) push our bodies to such extreme limits for the sake of learning. It strikes me as counter intuitive, and more than a little ironic.

Here's the story that brings me to thinking about such things: This weekend, I was at a conference out of town, learning how to minister cross culturally. It was excellent, but the busy days of processing combined with the late nights of talking with friends added up to a less than refreshing weekend. This was supplemented by the fact that on Thursday night I was forced to play police officer in a raid on a beer pong party on my floor. I will write a longer entry on this occurence later. It is a good enough story to deserve it's own posting. The point, though, is that Thursday night provided me with only three hours of sleep, headed into a busy weekend. I returned home Sunday afternoon needing to complete both a scholarship essay, and a draft of a paper for a class that is at it's best radically confusing, and at it's worst utterly non-sensical. So I stayed up until roughly 4 AM finishing what I could of those. I was helped along by some really good coffee from my Christmas stocking (thanks, mom), the music of Bob Dylan and Leonard Nimoy (not together, separately. And yes, Nimoy DID record quite a bit of low quality music. Live long and prosper, Spock, but definitely not on top of the music charts.), and one or two breaks to read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, to keep the stress low.

So when I finally went to bed, I realized that it would be a necessity to sleep through my first few classes. This is because I have a mid-term tomorrow morning, and will need to stay up late studying. As such, it was necessary to stock up on sleep. The conclusion of this long, slightly boring diatribe is that I can't wait to be a grown up who is allowed to leave his work at the office, and enjoy a semi-normal sleep schedule. Oh what dreams I have.

Speaking of dreams, the word came through today that BRAC definitely wants me to intern in Bangladesh. So it looks like I am going. It's exciting. I'll get to spend a semester soaking in the things I've only read about for so long. I am glad I am going to the sub-continent. I guess it's as close to home as most places I have lived. It will still be new, but I think there will definitely be some sense of familiarity. That being said, I am really looking forward to the adventure.

Also, I am thinking about making a movie after I graduate, and before I begin real life. Stay tuned for more information on this.

Basketball lost to Minnesota on the road on Saturday. 15 points. Not pretty, but the gophers played hard and deserved it. The real test is going to be Wednesday at Iowa. If we come into it with a game plan, we will be able to smoke them. Anything can happen in this league, though. Gotta love the big ten.